“I think when we get to Munster we like to pride ourselves… ‘yeah, we’re a good hurling team, skill-wise and all that but we love a battle’. It’s just a team that’s there, we love going into a dogfight.

“Winter hurling isn’t the nicest but we always seem to improve from Munster club hurling because we like to put the signal out that we’re grafters, we’ll work hard and we won’t just win the easy match or the good hurling, we love getting down and dirty, I get a buzz out of that, like.”

However, it’s the dread of being known as the team to end the record that is pushing them on, he reveals.

“When we won it in ’11 and won it in ’13, the thing has kind of just steamrolled since and all of a sudden we have a record to protect here and who are going to be the bunch of muppets that leave this record down, it doesn’t want to be us.”

Dowling looked to have picked up a hand injury in the Clonoulty game but had actually popped his shoulder in over-extending for the ball. It’s a recurring problem and there was a fear he would again miss out on Na Piarsaigh’s Munster advances after his knee problem this time last year.

But he reports himself fit to play as does Ronan Lynch who went off in the same game but didn’t suffer concussion.

Conceding hurling careers are shortening because of the demands, Dowling insists mental freshness is as important as physical well-being.

“Mental freshness is bigger than anything and you have to keep that. Everyone is aware of that. John Kiely. Paul Beary. Joe O’Connor. They are all aware of that. It’s how do you manage it.”

As well as previous managers Seán Stack and Shane O’Neill, Dowling credits coaches Darragh Droog and Alan Cunningham with keeping Na Piarsaigh fresh for battles.

“There are a lot of bluffers out there who want to train teams and the fact we are a high profile club, you attract these people, but Alan has no ego, no agenda, he’s one of the best hurling coaches I’ve worked under.”

“Not alone is he such a good hurling coach, he’s such a good guy as well.

“You could ring him any time, day or night, just to have a chat with him, and he’s just so welcoming with everything he does.”

Na Piarsaigh do have some insight into Ballygunner as their statistician Seánie O’Donnell was also Limerick’s this past season.

Dowling needs no introduction to them having faced them three times in the province. The margin of the Limerick club’s wins have grown each time, from six to seven to eight points in last year’s final, but the 25-year-old intimates that trend won’t continue in Thurles.

“When you look deeper into Ballygunner and Na Piarsaigh, you see they were nine points up in 2011, they were a point up at half-time last year. I can’t remember (was it) in 2015 and 2017, there’s a point in it after 58 minutes while we might have won by six or seven points.

“All the games we’ve played with them have been extremely close and we know that so we could be fools and look at the scoreline and think we’re a good bit ahead of them, we’re not, that’s the reality of it.

“They steamrolled us in Thurles last year in the first half and the first five minutes of the second half.

“If you’re down in Ballygunner now you’re saying ‘enough is enough, they’ve got us a couple of times, it’s about time we set the record straight’, and we’re aware of that as well and we’ll have to deal with it.”